Morgan City Requires Clean-Out To Find Broken Sewer Pipe

A broken sewer line at the sidewalk in Lakeside subdivision in Morgan City has been causing toilets and bathtubs in a home to backup periodically over the past few months.

The owner of the home paid several plumbers to run cables to clear the blockage, followed by the city attempting to clear the line, and each time the city workers informed the owner that the problem with the sewer pipe is on her side of the sidewalk and therefore her responsibility.

However, no one - not the plumbers or the city used a sewer video camera to locate the cause of the blockage. Even so, the city kept telling the homeowner that the problem with the sewer pipe is on her side and her responsibility.

Fortunately, a few weeks ago the sewer line backed up again and the homeowner couldn’t get a plumber to go out. They were all busy. So the customer finally called me at the recommendation of local plumber Fred Robicheaux.

I have a sewer video camera and discovered a disconnected pipe at the sidewalk - on the city side. The cement sidewalk is caved in right where the house sewer pipe is disconnected from the city sewer system underground.

The homeowner brought my video to the city officials and they finally agreed to fix the disconnected sewer pipe.

The customer had a rigged up saddle clean-out next to the house that everyone has been using to access the sewer pipe, but it’s not a clean-out the city can use to run their large camera to inspect the cast iron pipe. The city required the customer get a proper clean-out installed.

So customer hired me to dig up the make-shift clean-out and install a proper clean-out that is up to code.

The new clean-out installation was difficult as the existing pipe was under a lot of large roots, and I did the work right after a heavy rain making the job very muddy and sloppy. But the job was done successfully in one day.

Morgan City workers are supposed to fix the sewer pipe on its side after the beginning of the new year, according to the homeowner.

Location: Morgan City, LA